“No,” I said, finally, “I don’t guess it’s such a bad thing to be different.”
His lips tilted up in a smile, a small one, like another secret between us. He was about to say something else, and I wanted to know what it was so badly I was afraid to breathe, afraid I might miss it. I leaned in toward him, so I could hear better, squinting against the smoke.
But whatever it was got lost. His smile dropped away, and what he said instead was: “They’re back.”
CHAPTER 18
Anavi wasn’t just one of the pack. She was at the front of the loping formation. But even in here there wasn’t anything else to distinguish her from the rest. Gone were her camouflage and grenades with words on them—she was in black and armed beyond all reason, like the squadron arrayed around and behind her.
An angry red dragon flew over their heads, screeching bloodiest murder. Missiles were mounted under the sprawl of her wings.
That must be the famous Daisy.
SmallvilleGuy called up to her. “Good girl, Daisy! Let them have it!”
So much for keeping the name quiet.
Devin stalked out of the crumbled arch that used to be the entrance to his castle. He wasn’t alone. He brought a small-in-number but large-in-size army with him.
Two elephants, draped in robes printed with his silhouette, lifted their massive trunks to trumpet loud displeasure. Behind them came some sort of winged creatures, part eagle and part lion, with fearsome talons that hovered a few feet off the ground as their feathered wings beat to hold them aloft. Baby trolls—they were much smaller than the one Anavi had taken down, so I assumed these were babies—rode on top of the beasts and swung clubs or strung bows.
“They didn’t find the hidden entrance to the mine tunnels beneath the tower,” Devin said. “That’s where I keep most of my troops.” He looked smug as the ground shook again, but this time under the weight of the feet of his soldiers.
I would never understand all the ins and outs of this game.
Daisy landed on Devin’s other side and breathed a fresh round of fire at the attackers.
“The flying things that aren’t dragons are . . . ?” I asked.
Devin blinked. “Oh, my griffins. Awesome, right?”
The prospect of battle seemed to have revived him from his earlier defeat. For the moment.
But the Warheads had gathered extra gear and munitions of their own while they were gone. A shimmering white force field popped into existence around them.
“Enchanted ice barrier,” SmallvilleGuy said. “This is bad. It’s probably the only thing besides a fortified alien aircraft that your army can’t penetrate.”
“Crap,” Devin said. “You’re right.”
Devin waved his arm to indicate to his troops that they should retreat. The creatures milled around us, the dragon screeching in protest. But he was still their royal commander-in-chief. Devin raised his other arm and waved once more for them to go, and that did it.
Even if they didn’t want to, the trolls fell back, taking their mounts with them. The elephants lumbered along last, one looking back and trumpeting a final threat.
I realized something. When the Warheads had come after Anavi in the game, the only thing they bothered with was stealth and brute strength. There had been little finesse to the attack. But if they’d managed to bring the only weapon Devin couldn’t stand up to, that indicated a more, well, strategic kind of strategy.
“They’re smarter, aren’t they?” I asked. “It must be because they have Anavi.”
“Maybe,” SmallvilleGuy said, nodding. “More brainpower.”
“They can share resources. Not brains,” Devin said. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but we need to get out of here. Retreat’s the only option for now.”
It was clear that behind the ice barrier, the Warheads were prepping some sort of new weapons. Weapons that undoubtedly would hurt as bad as or worse than that screaming bullet wound to my shoulder the other day. SmallvilleGuy never had said if or where he’d been hit.
Painful memory or not, I didn’t like the idea of fleeing the scene. “We can’t just let them win. If we leave your castle undefended, they’ll destroy it completely.”
“We have to,” Devin said.
The certainty in his voice killed me. I didn’t want him to give up so quickly. It was my fault this was happening. Mine and the Warheads and whoever had made them this way.
“Any cheat codes?” I asked SmallvilleGuy.
“I’m out of any that would help here.” He said it with regret. Like disappointing me was as much a disappointment to him as anything else could be.
And that’s when I knew we were out of options. Officially.
“Then we have to go,” I said. “If there’s no chance of winning. I don’t want to get shot again for kicks.”